I don't have much time to play on this site or anywhere for that matter since I moved to study and then teach in the US in the 1980s, but I thought I should share some basic thoughts, especially for the beginner and intermediate level players. In the 1980s I was a chess coach for the Border squad and a year later for the Natal team for the South African championships. A few of my students received SA colours and that was great. I was surprised, though, how many kids were not schooled in the basics and how to find the appropriate material to study. Now that my nephew Kialan won the U10 KZN chess title and finished in the top 6 in the U10 SA championships, I'm starting to teach him to get into good chess habits for his later development. I thought while I'm coaching him I'd share a few tips with the aspiring player here too. 

The first thing I introduced Kialan to was the ECO system, which I explained to him in this way:

"Years ago, a Serbian company decided to classify all the chess openings in a publication called the Chess Informant. They produced 5 volumes of books containing all the master level openings known around the world. Today it's known as the ECO system: Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. Most players don't memorize this classification because it's not necessary, given you can just look it up. Those 5 volumes classify the openings using the letters A, B, C, D, E. Then the variations of each opening is added so you can get A00, A01, etc... So for example you can go a database of master level games online such as 

 http://www.365chess.com/eco.php
 

That can be summarized even further here:

http://ecochess.com

Spread out over the 5 volumes you will find this:

http://www.chessgames.com/chessecohelp.html

and find hundreds of different openings. While it's fun to know about them all, it's not necessary to memorize them all. Most masters tend to find a few of their favourite openings and defences and totally "master" those. Because they know other players are also studying their games, they prepare other openings just to surprise them when the game begins. So for your games you should study some of your favourite openings, look at what the grandmasters did over the years with that same opening, then use the same strategies in a tournament. Don't just copy the moves. Understand why they made those moves. For that see if there's an analysis of that game online. 

There are many chess databases, some with a couple hundred thousand games and others with a million or more. You can find just about anychess game online, so there's no need to buy anything. I tend to use a number of different databases to find interesting games to analyse and then copy during a real game.

I sometimes use this source:
http://www.chessgames.com/

or this

http://www.365chess.com/

or this

http://gameknot.com/chess-games-database.pl

among others."

For the players on this team I suggest signing up for free to some of these sites so you can have full access to those master level games. The chess explorer on this site doesn't go far enough unless you pay, but you can get them for free on other sites. Don't just "wing" moves and imagine they're greater than Kasparov's or Anand's or Fischer's moves. They're not. Otherwise you'd be a GM. Your opponent is probably looking up games on the database. So should you.

In my next lesson to Kialan I went through the basics of why e4, d4, and c4 with the knight and bishop protections are so fundamental to just about any opening: the control of the centre. Just as in war where the generals try to control key territorial spaces to dominate the enemy, we fight for the centre to do exactly that. 

I've looked at some lower rated games on this team and there are major blunders because those players are just not looking up the information. I hope some of those links here can set them on the right path with improved games in the future. Many of the other players seem to look things up, so that's a good sign. 

Get the fundamentals right and that will set you up for a good game. That can't guarantee a win or even a draw but it will give you a fighting chance. 

Thanks Jay - very useful indeed.

And whatever coaching tips/articles you have the time to offer here will be appreciated by many in TSA!

ditto here Jay - altho I must confess myself a lazy player in that regard. Looking up databases is not my idea of fun tho I do enjoy going thru master games esp when they are well annotated.

thank you for you time and effort in this post, i hope we will be getting regular news and updates!

Thanx for the info, jay.

And if I may add, PGN Mentor is a great site for finding games, sorted by opening (or favourite player) for free:

http://www.pgnmentor.com/files.html

And of course you can keep you database up to date with the very latst games by downloading the weekly update from TWIC, also free, although it's a pain to download the previous couple of hundred files to have the complete picture, it's probably worth it, because one tiny download per week after this and you'll know what Carlsen or Kramnik or Aroinian played last Wednesday :)

http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/twic

I think paying for any chess software nowadays is totally unnecessary, there are so many really good freeware or open source programes out there, with all the functionality (and sometimes more) of the expensive comercial packages.

Thanks appreciate 

There is just one problem using your advise. If we play to many GM moves Chess.com will ban us from the site. I did look at GM move in online games not live game the action is to quick but since the banning of one of SA team members one is to scared. It will improve your game over time but how can you play those moves with an ax hanging over your head. This was suppose to be a place where you can play friendly games to improve your game but it turn out Chess.com think the games played here are part of the word championships. 

This is a major misconception. Cheating checks compare with engine moves, not GM moves. Even the very best GM's on this site dont achieve engine matchups like some cheaters on this site does.

And anyway, in online chess and vote chess the use of databases is allowed.

Poker_Chess, no one will ban you for copying GM moves. In CC (correspondence chess), that is allowed. In any one situation it is hard to find different GMs making the exact same move as engines might, unless it is obvious or forced. So, ignore the fear of being banned because GM moves are NOT the same as predictable engines moves. 

Thanks for clarifying this matter

Its just that today's programs don't just calculate the best move mathematically but follow winning GM moves in its database till it runs out of move before switching to calculation mode with more than a million games in its database this only happens around move 25 and you can import more game with a click of a button. You can even choose to play a certain GM and the program will follow that GM moves. 

How can they determine its a software program if the software don't follow mathematical moves.

Why will anyone wants to cheat and get a rating of 2500, you don't get anything for it. It seems a waist of time and effed reaching something you cant use or even brag about your friends will know your not that good anyway.

Jay, I am looking for some GM's that will fit my style so I can follow there games, problem is I don't know who...

Some players try to pattern themselves after certain players. In my day I copied Fischer's moves and taught the same thing to my students. As Sunil Weeramantry, Nakamura's dad, who is an FM, once joked, "When in doubt, play like Fischer." Now I see Hikaru uses the same phrase.

At your stage of development, try to expose yourself to a wide array of players because you can learn different things from different players. Some youngsters just like attacking chess with crazy finishes, so they may be drawn to Lasker or Capablanca, others like slow incremental advantages that just wears the other person down like Karpov, some may like the accuracy of a computer thinker like Fischer, and some may go for accuracy and flash in style so Kasparov and Anand may fit into that category. There are also a group of women players that are introducing new ideas in the game, people like Humpy Koneru (India), the Kosintseva sisters (Russia), Anna Muzychuk (Slovakia?), Judith Polgar (Hungary) and others. Keep an open mind; every master level has something to offer, and don't forget the South African masters too.

The bottom line is you can't control the style of every game because there's another player too. The trick is to develop an arsenal to play against a quiet finesse player, the all-bombs type, the calculator type, etc... Even more important than that is to knock the opponent off his/her comfort zone and force them into your comfort zone. So preparation to aim for a certain position in a few different openings are key. Once they're on your turf you can take them apart. 

Thank you very much Jay.  This is very helpful - I know I always fall foul to all the mistakes, blunders and situations you present in your article.  I sometimes feel that I can find a mentor like yourself, someone who can sometimes show me how I lose my games.

Thank you once more.